Norfolk's chief constable has admitted the county's rate of solving domestic abuse and rape crimes do not make good reading - with just one in 16 of the latter solved.

For the 2017/18 financial year, just six percent of reported rapes resulted in a charge, while 21pc of the 7,564 domestic abuse reports were solved.

The figures were revealed in an annual report from the office of the police and crime commissioner, discussed at a meeting of the county’s police and crime panel.

Simon Bailey, chief constable of Norfolk Police, admitted the figures were a concern, but said these were in a large part due to victims choosing not to pursue investigations.

He said: “It is an incredibly complex matter. The figures do not make good reading but I can assure we are doing everything we can.

“Often victims no longer wish to prosecute, which is nothing to do with the policing; sometimes they do not want to give evidence because they want to get on with their lives or do not want to relive it.”

Lorne Green, Norfolk’s police and crime commissioner added that on occasions, police body cameras had meant that in domestic abuse incidents charges could be made without the victim wishing to prosecute.

Mr Bailey added: “Around a third of reports we received were historic, meaning we are working without forensic evidence.

“The incidents will have also taken place in private, where it is one person’s word against another.”

The chief constable also said victims not wanting to relinquish their phones for evidence was another barrier.

He added: “For some people, their phones are their lives, so they are reluctant to give them up and will decide against going ahead for that reason too.”

The figures also show that more than half of the county’s domestic abuse victims did not support prosecution, while the same can be said about four in 10 rape reports.

At the same meeting, panellist Peter Hill requested future figures be provided in number form, rather than in percentages.

The exact number of rape reports was not included in the report, but it is understood there were about 900.